Assessments and My Donor's Choose Project

So is this yucky sickness invading your school, too?  Man...I've had this crud for over a week now.  Fortunately I was able to schedule a doctor's appointment for tomorrow.  I was out last Tuesday, as were 9 other teachers!  You should've seen us walking around today.  It's only gotten worse.  Boo.  :(  Z Pack, here I come!

This is a 3-day week for us (can I get an amen?!?!), so we're using this week to assess, assess, assess in 1st grade.  My mind is fried after today.  And I still have to do fluency checks and finish up about 8 Houghton-Mifflin assessments tomorrow.  Whew.  Tonight will be an early bedtime, for sure!  Here's a view of a desk outside my room today as I was in the midst of Houghton-Mifflin checks (yes, the caffeine was a necessity!):

With the millions of assessments we do in 1st grade, I simply compiled mine into one chart showing what each child scored on each assessment.  I color-coded each assessment to show if they were high (green), in the middle (yellow), or low (red).  Then I color-coded which reading group I would put them in (Advanced = green, On-Level High = yellow, On-Level Low = orange, and Low = red).  This helps me plan my guided reading groups, as well as see an overall picture of my class.  I update it as the year goes and I gather more data.  I'm a very visual person, so the colors help!

One last thing for the night:  I have a Donor's Choose project in need of some funding!  There are only a few hours left of a special promotion they are having.  For every donation made, Donor's Choose will match the donation!  So let's say you donate $20.  Donor's Choose will match that, therefore it's like you donated $40!!!  Crazy and so amazing!  What a blessing!  I'm trying to get a new carpet for our classroom.  We have to purchase our own and mine is not meant for classrooms at all.  :(  If you would like to help, please visit this link:  http://www.donorschoose.org/mrs.kirby

BE SURE TO ENTER THE CODE "pumpkin" when you checkout so that they will match your donation!  :)  Thanks friends...kids are totally worth little things like this that seem so insignificant.  

Ok, off to do some more work on Reading Street stuff, as well as some stuff for my Reading Intervention class.  :)  Happy Mid-October!  :)